WinterHall
- Actor
The son of a Canterbury mayor and lay preacher, Winter Hall turned his early love of acting into a long and steady Hollywood career. He used friendships forged in Australasian dramatic companies to gain entrée into the silent film world, and became a valuable, “poised and distinguished” supporting actor in over 100 films, including 1925 silent epic Ben-Hur. His career continued unabated through the introduction of the ‘talkies’.
Image credit: Alexander Turnbull Library, B-158-009 (detail)
Screenography
Biography
Winter Hall was one of New Zealand’s little-known but successful early international actors, appearing in over 100 Hollywood films.
Named because of his midwinter birth, he was one of 12 children in a musical family, his father being at one time the first mayor of Kaiapoi, near Christchurch. Winter’s sister Louisa Maynard Hall was the first official piano accompanist for Christchurch radio station 3YA, and his brother Robinson acted in amateur theatre.
Winter’s dream of a professional stage career conflicted with his mother’s strict Methodist beliefs. So at first he worked as a teacher (initially at Sydenham Borough School, later at Christ’s College) and gave elocution recitals to satisfy his thespian inclinations. His performances were well received; The Ellesmere Guardian declared in 1906: “Mr Hall’s capabilities as an elocutionist are well known ... he thoroughly brought down the house, and conclusively proved himself an artist of great histrionic ability”.
“His ascetic cast of countenance and snow white hair gave him an ideal appearance for a clergyman, a family lawyer, a British nobleman, a stern parent, a prosecuting attorney, a judge … He was so useful as a type that Hollywood never bothered to discover whether he could act or not. ”
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